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Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
History : ''FLAME ON! '' :: --''' Human Torch ''' Early Years Johnny Storm and his older sister, Sue, lived uneventfully on Long Island until their mother, Mary Storm, died in an automobile accident. Their father, Franklin Storm, a doctor, failed to save her. Despondent, Franklin descended into booze and gambling, eventually winding up in a penitentiary for murder.5 The children went to live with their aunt Marygay. Growing up in suburban Glenville, Johnny Storm was drawn to automobiles despite his mother's death in a car accident, and became quite a mechanic at a young age. While still a teenager, he selflessly rescued two of his friends from a burning building. No stranger to adventure, Johnny was nearly chosen as the human host of the demonic Zarathos, and was attacked by the legendary St. Germaine, who sought the power for himself. Johnny escaped the lure of Zarathos with the help of archaeologist Max Parrish, the uncle of Cammy Brandeis, on whom Johnny had a bit of a crush. Fantastic Four Following his sister, Johnny joined scientist Reed Richards and pilot Ben Grimm on an unauthorized space flight. Riddled with cosmic radiation, Johnny transformed into a flaming monster when the flight crashed back to earth. Calling himself Human Torch in tribute to the World War II era hero of the same name, the youthful Johnny found new adventure as part of the Fantastic Four, proving to be an invaluable if somewhat volatile member of the team.7 Falling out with his teammates after a battle with the Miracle Man,8 Johnny left the group and encountered amnesiac World War II hero Namor the Sub-Mariner. Recognizing Namor from comic books, Johnny dropped him into the sea, hoping to restore his memory. The plan worked, but after Namor found Atlantis in ruins, he declared war on humanity. Johnny rejoined the Fantastic Four and together they drove Namor back into the sea.9 Later, the immature Johnny again considered quitting the Fantastic Four, this time to joining his cousin Bones' circus, but quickly returned to the team.10 Though a member of the world-famous Fantastic Four, Johnny was still a teenage Glenville High student, albeit one who regularly clashed with super-powered menaces. Johnny even tried to conceal his dual identity from most of the locals at first, though this proved futile as the true identities of all four Fantastic Four founders were widely known almost from the start.11 In solo action (and sometimes assisted by his teammate the Thing or his sister), he fought the communist Destroyer12 and Rabble Rouser;13 the Wizard;1415416Zemu, Warlord of the 5th Dimension;17 Paste Pot Pete;18419 Acrobat;1120Wilhelm van Vile, the enigmatic Painter of 1000 Perils;21 the Sorcerer of Glenville Woods;22 the Asbestos Man;23 the original Eel;2425 the Plant Man;2627 the Sandman;28 the Puppet Master,29 the modern-day pirate Captain Barracuda, whom Johnny defeated in the first of several team-ups with his super-heroic elemental opposite Iceman;30 the Terrible Trio3131 and the Beetle.32 Super-villains, however, weren't Johnny's only rivals. Mike Snow, a member of the Glenville High wrestling squad, bullied Johnny until an accidental flare-up of the Torch's powers scarred Snow's face. Despite their animosity, Snow concealed the incident, blaming the injuries on a prank gone wrong and maintaining that Johnny had actually saved his life that night by flying him to the hospital.33 While Mike tried to move on with his life, Johnny did the same, dating fellow student Dorrie Evans, although she eventually grew tired of his constant disappearances and broke it off. Johnny met another teenage hero, Spider-Man, who broke into the Baxter Building hoping to impress the Fantastic Four.34 They clashed when the Fox framed Spider-Man for stealing a Da Vinci painting.35 Despite their early misunderstandings, the Torch had great respect for Spider-Man36 and the two eventually became good friends. When the Super-Skrull, possessing the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, attacked the team, the Human Torch managed to trap him inside a cave,37 but the Super-Skrull escaped and impersonated Franklin Storm. The Four exposed the Super-Skrull, but the Skrulls strapped a bomb to the real Franklin's chest, and Franklin sacrificed his own life to save his children.5 A trip to the Skrull home world and the death of Warlord Morrat, the Skrull who authorized Franklin's murder, brought some measure of revenge,38 but this would not be the last time the Skrulls would interfere in Johnny's life. College After graduating high school, Johnny enrolled in Metro College, where he befriended his roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot.39 Wyatt joined Johnny and the Fantastic Four on a trip to Wakanda, where they first encountered the Black Panther and helped him defeat Klaw.40 Around this time, Johnny met the young Inhuman Crystal.41 It was love at first sight, and Johnny, along with the rest of the Fantastic Four, helped her overthrow the mad Inhuman prince Maximus.42 Their love was passionate but short-lived, as Crystal returned to Attilan and married Quicksilver, the son of Magneto, eventually bearing his child. Johnny was crushed, but tried to move on. Hoping to catch up on old times with Dorrie Evans, he found that she had married and had two kids since they had broken up. Despite dropping out of Metro U, Johnny remained friends with Wyatt, who often participated in the Fantastic Four's adventures and was later romantically linked to the She-Hulk. When Johnny's sister Sue and her husband Reed were separated, Johnny joined the Thing, Medusa and Thundra in a staged battle against the rehabilitated Namor in an effort to bring the couple back together. Their ploy worked, and Sue and Reed patched things up for good. Seeking direction in his life, Johnny was tricked into attending the high-class Security College, a front for the Monocle, an agent of the megalomaniac Enclave, who used him to steal top-secret high-tech weapons. Spider-Man broke the Monocle's control of the Torch. Johnny then joined the rest of the Fantastic Four in space, where they helped the Champions of Xandar against the invading Skrulls. When Johnny's teammates were dying from a Skrull aging ray, Johnny destroyed the robotic assassin Skrull X, allowing the infirm Reed to use his weapon to reverse the aging. Hearing of the execution of David George Munson, his former high school classmate, Johnny helped the NYPD clear his name and nabbed several leading members of the Maggia criminal organization, including Hammerhead. After a brief relationship with auto mechanic Lorrie Melton, Johnny fell for Frankie Raye, a woman who was desperately afraid of his flames.4344 Frankie eventually discovered that her pyrophobia stemmed from being hypnotized by her late stepfather, Phineas Horton (creator of the android Human Torch), into forgetting that he had accidentally given her flame powers of her own. Johnny helped Frankie adjust to her rediscovered powers as their relationship blossomed, but when Galactus returned to Earth, Frankie agreed to follow him into space as his new herald, Nova. Distraught, Johnny was comforted by Frankie's former roommate, Julie Angel, and began to have feelings for her. Confusing matters further, Julie's friend, Sharon Selleck, had a crush on Johnny. Julie eventually moved to California to continue her acting career, and nothing came of Sharon's crush. Marriage Johnny was briefly abducted by agents of the Messiah (Alden Maas) in his mad plot to expand the Earth by super-heating its core. Brought to Battleworld by the Beyonder during the Secret Wars and forced to battle various super-villains, Johnny met and was healed by Zsaji, a native of the planet. Physically but not emotionally attracted to Zsaji, Johnny found an unlikely rival in Colossus, who fell in love with the healer. Although Zsaji returned Johnny's affection at first, she eventually chose Colossus over the Torch, but then sacrificed her own life to rescue several dying heroes. Johnny returned to Earth, where he found himself drawn to Alicia Masters, longtime girlfriend of Johnny's then-absent Fantastic Four teammate, the Thing. Johnny and Alicia's romance helped estrange the Thing from the Fantastic Four for a lengthy period. Johnny hit his lowest point when Tommy Hanson, a young fan of his, set himself on fire in an attempt to be more like his hero. Hearing of the boy's death, Johnny considered retiring as the Human Torch, but the Beyonder managed to talk him out of it.45 Eventually Johnny married Alicia, but a jealous Thing offered a spot in the Fantastic Four to Crystal, who was separated from Quicksilver at the time. Johnny's old feelings for Crystal slowly returned, but his love for Alicia enabled him to resist temptation, and Crystal eventually left the team. Despite their long and intimate relationship, Johnny was horrified to discover that the Alicia he loved and married was not the true Alicia Masters, but a Skrull imposter named Lyja. Originally sent to infiltrate and destroy the Fantastic Four, Lyja truly fell in love with Johnny, and joined the Fantastic Four in confronting Paibok, the Skrull who had kidnapped the real Alicia. Lyja seemingly sacrificed her life to protect Johnny, but her former lover Paibok nursed her back to health. Trying to move on from yet another failed relationship, Johnny enrolled at Empire State University; but Devos, Paibok and even Lyja attacked Johnny at ESU, forcing his powers to go nova, burning down a large section of the campus.46 Johnny briefly became a fugitive until Reed agreed to sell some of his patents to pay for the damages. Lyja returned to Johnny's life again, tricking him into believing she was carrying his baby. When this proved a lie as well, Johnny left her again. Continuing Adventures Johnny briefly joined his nephew Franklin's Fantastic Force team, where he battled his virtually omnipotent extra-dimensional counterpart Vangaard (formerly Gaard), convincing him to abandon his mission of eliminating redundant realities by showing him the hero he could become.47 Lyja posed as student Laura Green and dated Johnny to stay close to him; Johnny recognized her when they kissed though he didn't share this until later, but the two never had the chance to explore their true feelings. After Franklin Richards created Counter-Earth and rescued the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and several other heroes from death at the hands of Onslaught, Roma deemed Franklin too powerful to ignore, and sent the Technet and the Captain Britain Corps to retrieve him. The Human Torch convinced Roma that Franklin's family, the Fantastic Four, would be able to nurture him so that he would not grow up to be a danger to the Omniverse.48 While the rest of the Fantastic Four battled the Gideon Trust and Annihilus in the Negative Zone, Johnny was forced to recruit a temporary Fantastic Four team consisting of Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Johnny's on-and-off girlfriend Namorita (Namor's cousin), and the She-Hulk, who battled the Gideon Trust on Earth.49 When the cosmic entity Abraxas came to Earth-616, Johnny teamed with an extra-dimensional version of the now-deceased Frankie Raye to retrieve the Ultimate Nullifier, a weapon powerful enough to destroy Abraxas. This Nova betrayed Johnny and gave the Nullifier to her master, Abraxas, but even that couldn't save Abraxas after Galactus joined the fight. Following the battle, Susan found herself pregnant again, and, with Reed off battling the Hidden Ones, Johnny was forced to seek help from Dr. Doom when problems with the pregnancy threatened Sue's life. Doom saved both Sue and her daughter, Valeria. Seeking an acting career, Johnny was cast as the Rawhide Kid in a summer blockbuster; but it was eventually decided he wasn't ready for the role, which was given to Lon Zelig (actually the Super-Skrull). Johnny also spent some time as a firefighter at the behest of his former classmate, Mike Snow; but when Snow moved away after his wife turned out to be a psychotic arsonist and seemingly died, Johnny left the job (though he later returned to the profession during a period when the Fantastic Four was short on cash). Sick of her brother's directionless life, Sue forced him to take a job as the Chief Financial Officer for Fantastic Four, Inc. Although initially in over his head, Johnny was able to stop a manufacturer from stealing the secret of Reed's Unstable Molecule suits, and began to warm up to both the job and his co-worker, Jian Fetta. Unfortunately, after a major battle with Doom, Reed attempted to claim Latveria for the Fantastic Four, an act that turned the United States government against them. To escape trial, the group was forced to sell many of their patents and holdings to the government, which left Johnny's wallet much emptier than usual and sent his popularity plummeting. Seeking help from the least popular person he could think of, Johnny contacted Spider-Man, who tried to cheer Johnny up by bringing him to a water park, where they were attacked by Hydro-Man. Easily defeating the villain and rescuing the park's popular mascot, Johnny found his popularity rising once more. Johnny also began to converse with a new girl over the internet, and hit it off when he finally met her. This girl, Cole, turned out to be the daughter of one of Johnny's oldest enemies, the Wizard; but although she was sent to trick the Fantasic Four, Cole actually helped lead them to the Wizard's lair, where they battled him and his new Frightful Four. The Wizard escaped and took Cole with him, but Johnny remained hopeful about meeting her again. An alien named Zius later came to Earth, the location of the one being in the universe who could nullify his Galactus-proof planet-cloaking invisibility shield, Susan Richards. Zius threatened to destroy the planet if Sue did not sacrifice herself, but Reed used his power gun to switch her powers with Johnny's and tricked Zius into leaving the planet. As he left orbit, Galactus destroyed Zius's spaceship and claimed Johnny as his new Herald. Unwilling to lead Galactus to populated worlds, Johnny used his new powers to analyze Galactus and, with the help of the Fantastic Four and Quasar, managed to transform Galactus back into humanoid form. Johnny's power cosmic faded, but during Reed's subsequent efforts to reverse Sue and Johnny's power switch, a remnant of the power caused a flare-up that temporarily sent the Fantastic Four's powers into four random New Yorkers. Civil War The super-human Civil War split the team once again. Johnny was beat into a brief coma during a visit to a nightclub, sparked by anger over the Stamford disaster.50 When he finally awoke none of his teammates were there to greet him due to their duties of helping Iron Man's pro-registration faction. After the death of Bill Foster51 during a battle between the two factions, Johnny went with his sister, Sue, to join Captain America's "Secret Avengers". Through Nick Fury's connections, the two were given new identities as husband and wife, which they accepted (with understandable reluctance).52 At the end of the Civil War, Johnny and Sue returned to the Fantastic Four. Johnny and the Thing continued to serve on the team again, but this time with the Black Panther and his new wife Storm filling in while Reed and Sue took some time to reconcile.53 Secret Invasion During the Skrull Invasion, a Skrull invaded the Baxter Building, posing as Sue, and sent it into the Negative Zone, with Johnny, Ben, Franklin and Valeria inside. When Johnny confronted the Skrull, she revealed herself to be his old flame, Lyja, who had been trying to keep them out of harm's way. When Ben, Johnny, Franklin, Val and the Tinkerer were ready to leave the Negative Zone she refused to leave, because she wanted to find out who she was.6 Death & Return While Reed and Sue were gone from the Baxter Building of their own important missions, a group known as the Cult of the Negative Zone successfully made their way into the building and breached the portal to the Negative Zone. Once inside, the cult managed to unleash what seemed to be an endless army of Annihilus Insectoid Soldiers upon Johnny, the currently powerless Ben, and the kids of the Future Foundation. Franklin revealed that he had his powers back by destroying the army and the group pushed into the Negative Zone, where the only way to hold the army off from getting through the door was to lock the door from their side and randomize the code so no one could get in or out. Ben was prepared to make the sacrifice, but Johnny threw him through the portal as he regained his powers.54 Johnny used his nova flame, but still couldn't burn the whole army and was captured. Annihilus demanded that Johnny opened the portal to Earth, but he refused and was killed. Three times Johnny was resurrected by worms-healers, but every time he burned them before they had time to recover his body and he died again and again. Finally worms have been able to recover his body, and Johnny was sent to prison, where he met with the Light Brigade. Together they escaped, attacked Annihilus and Johnny took away his Cosmic Control Rod. After that Johnny opened a portal to the Baxter Building and they all returned to Earth.55 Then Johnny gathered the team drawing with fire the symbolical "4" at the sky above the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue, Ben and Peter boarded one of the Annihilation Wave's ships controlled by Johnny, who used the rest of the ships to battle the Kree army until the Inhumans asked to finish them by their own hand.56 Meanwhile the other heroes on Earth where dealing with the scraps of the battle which could damage the Earth, Reed and Sue summons Galactus, who destroys completely the Kree army. That moment, the Mad Celestials appeared to destroy this universe. Although the team tried to use the Hub (a weapon of mass destruction created by the Reeds), they couldn't defeat the Mad Celestials. Then, a future version of Franklin and Valeria appeared as part of Nathaniel Richards's plan.57 The Future Franklin used his power to heal Galactus and destroy the Mad Celestials, saving the day.58 Later, the Baxter Building was easily rebuilt, Mr. Fantastic showed a new secondary headquarters called Foundation and new costumes were given to the members of the Future Foundation, as part of the reformation of the Fantastic Four.59 The Fall of the Fantastic Four When New York was invaded by monsters from the Counter-Earth, Johnny Storm sacrificed his powers in order to stop them.60 He managed to partially cope with the loss of his powers and focused on his musical career.61 During a second invasion caused by the Quiet Man, Johnny was helping some of the allies of the Fantastic Four escape from the Counter-Earth when the portals from it were closed by Mister Fantastic. The resulting radiation gave Johnny his powers back.